IDC Korea Announces 15.9% Growth in Domestic Enterprise Mobility Market Last Year
Expansion of customer communication and business culture through mobile, focusing on the finance and retail sectors

According to a recent report by IDC Korea (CEO Hong Yoo-sook), the domestic enterprise mobility market recorded 1.5874 trillion won last year, a 15.9% increase from the previous year, driven by the growth of the mobile software and services market.

The report (Korea Enterprise Mobility Market Forecast, 2016-2020) stated that the enterprise mobility market is expected to grow by 8.1% year-on-year this year, driven by the growth of the mobile software sector, which is showing a relatively higher growth rate than other areas. Despite the burden of security and management cited as growth-hinding factors, the domestic enterprise mobility market is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 4.3% until 2020 as corporate mobility adoption continues to increase.

Lee Young-so, a senior researcher at IDC Korea responsible for the domestic mobility market research division, stated, "The forms of mobility adoption are inevitably very diverse and complex depending on the industry, size, and internal security policies of the company." He added that companies are approaching the adoption of mobility very cautiously due to company-specific regulations, business environments, and the rapidly changing nature of mobile technology. However, it was explained that the adoption of mobility by companies is on a continuous upward trend as suppliers consistently offer diverse product lineups and packages that businesses need.


Researcher Lee Young-so added, "While the adoption of mobility is currently limited to certain departments or tasks and concentrated in specific service industries such as retail, logistics, and finance, it is expected to spread to a wider range of sectors beyond just related ones as successful references gradually increase, leading to expectations of a continuous expansion of the enterprise mobility market."

Furthermore, companies stated that the adoption of enterprise mobility would enable them to facilitate not only internal operations but also collaboration with business partners more easily and quickly. They also emphasized that, recognizing that integrating mobility into business models can enhance customer accessibility through mobile experiences and ultimately lead to improved profitability, an increasing number of companies will naturally integrate mobility into legacy systems or formulate policies that place mobility at the center of their business and operations.

The key is configuring integrated solutions and partnership strategies that reflect diverse customer needs.

Meanwhile, the report noted that while corporate skepticism regarding the adoption of mobility has significantly decreased, mobility inevitably faces complex situations when integrated with existing systems, and urged suppliers to enhance their brand power while simultaneously developing new technologies and proposing differentiated package products. It was also emphasized that there is a need to provide guidelines to enable corporate customers to successfully adopt mobility and utilize it more extensively.

In particular, the challenges facing companies were broadly categorized into four areas—'customer business environment,' 'limited budget,' 'difficulties in understanding and internalizing rapidly changing technology,' and 'anxiety regarding extensive management points and service continuity'—and suppliers were urged to develop strategic approaches and countermeasures that take these factors into account.

Although mobility is expected to establish itself as a core strategy for corporate operations by effectively communicating with customers and driving sales growth through preference analysis based on customer data, market expansion has been slow compared to the speed at which corporate and market attention began to focus on mobility, despite these expectations. This is because major service providers have concentrated their businesses on emerging areas such as cloud computing and IoT rather than mobility, and corporate clients have also frequently prioritized other technologies and services over mobility when allocating infrastructure investments.

"Senior Researcher Lee Young-so stated, 'In the mobility market, rather than large service providers, telecommunications companies, or traditional solution providers that have led the market in the past, specialized mobile solution providers with diverse technological competitiveness are expected to expand the market as key players by creating synergy through strategic partnerships.'"